The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-04-09
QUEER TAXES IN GREAT BRIT
AIN.

The first tax ever imposed in Great
Britain was the one levied by Julius
Cesar. When this brave warrior had
subdued the warlike races Of Southern
Britain, he ordered the chiefs OF the va
rious clans to send annually to Rome a
given number of men and wild animals
the former, he said, would be retained
as hostages, and the latter would be used
for the great fights in the Coliseum. But
very often the men and the wild animals
were put on an equal footing, and forced
to fight with each other in sight of the
blood-thirsty and applauding Romans.
When the military prowess of Rome
disappeared there arose in its place an
ecclesiastical ascendancy. Britain was
again in subjection-not to Caesar, but to
an infallible pope. Now the pope was
interested in the welfare of the British
Isles, and to put that interest into con-
crete form he established university at
Rome expressly for English students.
The pope, however, did not maintain this
college at his own expense but looked to
England for support. A tax was accord
ingly imposed, the name it went under
being that of "Peter's Pence" The i'm
position of taxes by the pope gradually
extended, and in a few centuries the
country was but the exchequer of the Ro-
man pontifcate.
When the English in the reign of Ed
gar the Peaceable, conquered Wales, they
levied tax on the Welsh. 1t was a very
unique one. Instead of money tribute.
the conquered people had annually to
hand over to the English king three hun
dred wolves heads; plan which in four
years cleared their forests of these wild
animals, and thus more safety was secur-
ed both for man and domestic animals.
About this time, also, Britain was sorely
beset with foreign foes, who for the most
part came from Norway. To protect
their shores the British required fleet,
and to provide for this fleet tax was i'm
posed on all countries bordering on the
sea.
But of all the taxes ever imposed on a
people the "birth-tax" was the most
odious. 1t lasted thirteen years, dating
from 1895. Every person not in receipt of
aims was required to pay two shillings for
every 'little stranger" that came into ex-
istence. The tax was a great burden to
the lower orders; but the nobility and
gentry were subjected to still heavier
payments than their poorer neighbors.
Thirty pounds had to be paid on the
birth of the child of duke. The sum
gradually diminished according to GER
tain fixed scale, until it reached ten shill-
ings, the amount levied on real estate of
fifty pounds, or personal estate of six
hundred pounds and upward.
Contemporaneously with this "birth-
tax" there existed another, called the
bachelors tax" AS soon as a man
reached the age of twenty-five he was liza
BILE to the tax which was one shilling
yearly till he took unto himself a spouse.
But it did not stop with bachelors, but
taxed widowers without children. Be-
sides the shilling, every person had to pay
an amount according to his rank for the
luxury of single blessedness; thus duke
or archbishop was amerced in the yearly
sum OF twelve pounds ten shillings; an
esquire two pounds five shillings; a gen.
tleman, five shillinRs.
In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the
English Parliament passed an act of Uni
formity, ordering all those who should re-
fuse to be Episcopalians, or should alb
sent themselves from church on Sundays,
to pay a tax of one shilling per year. In
those days religious federation was at a
very low ebb.